>>Nan Johnson: One of the literacy stories that I didn't know I had, was the one I realized I kept telling to my writing students for First-year writing or for 367 intermediate composition was about moving from writing everything out longhand, for my professional clerk, to writing on the screen. So I call it the "Moving to composing on the screen story." And of course they all sit out there and look at me like I'm the most ancient person in the world, and yet it's really interesting to them, because then I find out that they only write their poems out longhand, or they only write special letters out longhand ok? So then we end up with this whole discussion about composing, but real writing means when we have different attitudes about how we must write that certain thing. That special letter or that journal or. So I tell them that my classic example of this, of writing special things out is writing the introductions and conclusions to my conference papers on the plane. On yellow lined paper with a #2 pencil, and it had to be a #2 pencil. Because there is just this certain pressure that will bring out profound thoughts in me. So they are there chuckling away at this story right, because they're thinking about what conclusions are, and how you are supposed to wrapping up and leaving your audience with a certain feeling, and then we think about how those thoughts come. So how writing, the act of writing is epistemic or heuristic, and then technology is swirling into this whole conversation. So then eventually I get back to the whole writing on the screen thing, and how hard it was for me. And how I first used the computer as a really great typewriter. Where I would write everything out and I would type on it and it would print out, and I thought this was magic, it was like magical right? (Laughter) So this was in the early 80's, ok? I got my first mac, those ones that look like a blender with a cover over it, you know those little square guys? And so, and then I (2:24.0) in 19th century (...) North America. And so I said, ok, I'm going to try "composing on the screen". I know what this is called, this is called composing on the screen so I'm going to do it, right? Well then there was no going back. Once I actually did it, and the labor disappeared, it was so much quicker. I could cut and paste and lift this, for me, historical data, I mean a lot of information. I could lift it out and move it around. I found that, cut and paste was a thrilling thing to me. So I tell them I finally made the transfer to composing right on the screen, and all the things that let me do that I couldn't do before. And that I really had the feeling that was actually affecting how I was writing. So all of these things, cut and paste, it was so swift, all those things, it was actually effecting how I was developing the arguments, developing the sub-tense of the work. So now they're thinking about all the things like "just cut and paste" they've totally taken for granted. So then they're starting to think about how the technology is affecting how they are composing, and so then we go around and everybody shares their story. So at this point there's like 5 different times for them to share the same kinds of thing. So for me, in terms of literacy, in terms of how I write, this was 20 years ago, more than 20 years ago. But I can remember it to this day, sitting there thinking "I've got to try it, I've got to try it". Because it was a big deal right? and I continued to write the introductions and the conclusions on the yellow paper, with the pencil, and still do. So that's sort of where I am with that. And about reading, I don't know about this, I wish we could talk more about this. I cannot read important work on the screen, I have to print it out. I can't do it, you know I can't do it. If I'm writing my own work, I print it out, every two pages. Revise it, fix it, and move on. I cannot read it, whatever that act of reading means, on the screen. So I'm now talking to my students about this because they have all kinds of interesting things to say about that. And I don't know what that's about, but it's something that after I tell the composing story, then I can go on to talk about the "Can't read off the screen story." So then they have all kinds of things to talk about that. So I'm using these things clearly as teaching tools, but I don't really understand the reading thing but I really can't do it.
>>Speaker: Have you ever made comments on student drafts, on the screen?
>>Nan Johnson: Never.
>>Speaker: It's always on paper?
>>Nan Johnson: Always.
>>Speaker: When you write out either graduate reports or responses back to students...
>>Nan Johnson: I do type out graduate reports. I do type out graduate reports. Sometimes I'll do, like on a dissertation chapter there might be several comments so I might type up a summary sheet to hand back with the chapter, but I will also have annotated that chapter with comments. So I have never in my life on the screen, inserted a comment, in my life. I think that's rather dubious. I'm talking about how I can't read on the screen and I have to print. Laura (6:04.0) is saying that she is, they're taking literacy narratives so I'm just participating here. These are our colleagues here.
>>Others: (Inaudible, laughter)
>>Nan Johnson: Well I think I'm done.